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In Memoriam Vangelis Kechriotis

On August 27, 2015, our dear friend and colleague Vangelis Kechriotis passed away in Istanbul. Vangelis is deeply missed and fondly remembered. He was a historian, a public intellectual, a dedicated teacher, and passionate activist who endeavored to write the history of non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire and to make Istanbul, his adopted home, a place for all of its residents. Never limiting himself to just one community or to an academic audience, Vangelis continuously wrote and spoke in Turkish, Greek, and English in venues from academic journals to television shows to street protests. His concern was the past and present of democracy in Turkey and Greece, and, indeed, throughout the world.

To commemorate his life, we collected the memories and thoughts of his friends and colleagues as written texts and audio recordings in the weeks following his death. We also recorded an extended audio interview with some of these colleagues and friends in Istanbul discussing his life, ideals, and accomplishments. What follows are written and oral testimonies in Turkish, English, and Greek of his friendship, activism, and scholarship.

We have divided them in two parts. The podcast, interspersed with the aural remembrances, can be accessed through the streaming link. The second part is a PDF document containing written memorials of Vangelis. We are releasing them now, at the end of 2015, as a small tribute to his life. In addition to this, our readers and listeners can find a selected bibliography of Vangelis’s writings and a link to the podcast we recorded with Vangelis about his research two months before his passing. We thank all the people who have contributed to this endeavor.

“Civilization and Order: Middle-class Morality Among the Greek-Orthodox in Smyrna/Izmir at the End of the Ottoman Empire, in A. Lyberatos (ed.), Social Transformation and Mass Mobilization in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean Cities, 1900-1923, 115-32.

‘Educating the nation: Migration and Acculturation on the two Shores of the Aegean at the turn of the twentieth century’ in the volume Meltem Toksöz & Biray Kulluoğlu (eds), Cities of the Mediterranean: From the Ottomans to the Present Day, London, I.B. Tauris, 139-156, 2010.

‘The Modernisation of the Empire and the ‘Community Privileges’: Greek responses to the Young Turk policies’ in Touraj Atabaki (ed.), The State and the Subaltern. Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran, London, I. B.Tauris, 2007, 53-70.

Vangelis, accomponied by his daughter Rana narrates the history of the Halki seminary in one of the school's classrooms, 2015. (Submitted by Özge Ertem)

Boğaziçi University History faculty members at the 2013 graduation ceremony (Submitted by Nevra Necipoğlu)

Vangelis and his students from Boğaziçi University visiting the Armenian Patriarchate in Kumkapı, Istanbul (Submitted by Onur Şar)

“The Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean” project: monthly Greek-Turkish seminar organized by Vangelis Kechriotis and Lorans Baruh, which met for three years 2004-2007 (Submitted by Lorans Tanatar Baruh)

Season 6 on SoundCloud

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